Monday, October 6, 2008

Deaf

A nice encouraging story:

http://home.att.net:80/~hideaway_today/t130/frog.htm

The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing

I have been reading a book entitled "The Pursuit of God" by A.W. Tozer. This book was written in the late 40's yet is still relevant in our time. I am making slow progress, as every time I pick it up, I must have a block of time in which to read, meditate, digest the words. As you might have picked up from my blogging, blocks of time are scarce, thus making this slow reading! HA!

What I want to talk about is the second chapter. I read this over a month ago yet the words of it still ring in my ears as a beautiful encouragement and comfort, especially in the midst of financial crisis that is currently overwhelming our country.

The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing.

(any quotes that I present are from this chapter in this book.)

When God created all the "things" of the world, he intended for them to be external and subservient to man. God created us with a place in our hearts to be filled by none other than God Himself. The trouble for us began when we allowed "things," the very gifts that God gave us, to replace Him in our hearts. We allowed these "possessions" to take root in our hearts. We use the words "my" and 'mine" when we truly should acknowledge that all things are from God, that we and all things are His. Our "self life" is actually "an enemy within us which we tolerate at our own peril."
"To allow this enemy to live is in the end to lose everything. To repudiate it and give up all for Christ's sake is to lose nothing at last, but to preserve everything unto life eternal." When Christ refers to the "poor in spirit," this is what He is referring to. To get to that place, we need to follow these words, "Let him take up his cross and follow Me."
The poor in spirit are the ones who are not slaves to things, to possessions, gain, profit, earthly and familial relationships.

Tozer made an example in this chapter of Abraham and his son Isaac. God realized that, since Isaac was a miracle baby, Abe's whole live revolved around him. Abraham had everything that would constitute worldly possessions. He had his precious son. God knew that for Abe to surrender himself and to become poor in spirit (God didn't ask him to be poor in possessions), he was to sacrifice his own son. Imagine the grief and confusion that Abe felt as God asked this of him! Abraham ultimately obeyed God and was rewarded by not only being able to have his son live and his descendants be the chosen people of God, but the temple within his heart was made available for God to "reign unchallenged."

In the scenario of the state of financial crisis our country is experiencing...where are our hearts? Will we survive great financial loss? Security in things? When we put our hope and faith into things and people, where do we find ourselves when the going gets rough? Things will go away, people will let us down. God will never do either. He will always be with us. If we put our hope in Him, when the going gets rough, we still have Him! We will never lose everything. He will always take care of us.

I pray that we all can allow the roots of possessions to be pulled from our hearts so that God, our Heavenly Father, can reside there, filling us to the brim with His love and care.

Here is Mr. Tozer's prayer at the conclusion of this chapter:

"Father, I want to know Thee, but my coward heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide them from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without rival. Then shalt Thou make the place of Thy feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of sun to shine in it, for Thyself wilt be the light of it, and there shall be no night there. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Sunday fun, pet drama, meal planning and living up to my maiden name

Today, I took a self-imposed break from the norm. I didn't set an alarm clock, I woke up at my own pace, read for as long as I wanted while I sipped some coffee. I didn't wake the kids up, instead they got up when they were ready. I took a long shower and shaved (a rare treat! Hehe!) and we all took our time to get ready for brunch. We went to eat, no rush, had a delicious meal at a popular West Side Mexican restaurant. The kids and I walked to Grandpa's house while Dad waited for Grandpa's lunch to go and squared up the bill. We visited with G for while and loaded up our old cast iron wood stove that Danny and I bought before we had Olivia that has been sitting in the shed all these years. Sophia and I got a few items at the grocery store and then we came home. Once here, I got some bread going in the Kitchen Aid mixer and did some dishes. As the dough was rising, I warmed up the oven and baked 3 dozen peanut butter cookies and 15 baking powder biscuits. (BTW this is where I live up to my maiden name - BAKER).

Sophia has been coveting the neighbor kids' breakfast biscuit sausage sandwiches. I made the biscuits and some sausage patties, assembled the sandwiches, wrapped individually and put in the freezer. Voila! An hour of work and a weeks' worth of healthy convenience food! : )

While I was inside baking, Danny got the wood stove burning outside and fixed chicken fajitas with red and green peppers and purple onions from Julie's farm. He even heated up the corn tortillas tight on the stove top! Delish! We topped these with my home made salsa ad some yogurt cheese (I know this sounds icky, but it is from my yogurt I made last week - I strained it over a pot overnight and it turned out with a taste and texture very close to sour cream. (Sophia likes to mix raspberry jam into it.)

The bread, in all it's fragrant glory, came out of the oven, ready to be tested out on my family as our daily bread....good for sandwiches, toast, etc.

Meanwhile, during all this cooking and baking, I sent Olivia outside to clean the mouse cage. She got Lizzie and Dungeon into a safe place and went to work. She soon ran in, crazy excited, holding 4 newborn baby mice in her hand. I mean they were the size of large kidney beans. I sent her out to make sure that was all and she came back with three more! These babies are no more than 24 hours old. There is a problem, though. Lizzie and Dungeon are both girls. We have had them for at least 15 months. We suspect that there have been unexpected visitors sneaking in and out of their cage. The girls are pretty big, but the field mice are pretty small. Living near a field, out in the country, we have had mice in the house before. I guess it's time to start a mouse control effort again! Ugh! Olivia completed cage cleaning and we got the mice reunited with the babies (we don't know which one's the mom because they seem to have turns mothering them. Sweet.) As soon as they start moving around easily, we will have to either find a glass aquarium with a screen top or take them to the pet store. I don't know if they'll take mutts, though.

(I have taken a bunch of pics but lost them all while getting them downloaded...the program wasn't responding and I took the card out, the pics had already been removed from the device but never made it to the program).

As soon as the excitement died down, the kids and Dad washed my car (and each other!) and I got the meal plan done for the week. Here it is...

Sunday - Fajitas
Monday - sausage biscuit sandwiches
grilled cheese and tomato soup
Tuesday - smoothies
Posole
Wednesday - oatmeal
Sloppy Jotatoes*
Thursday - smoothies
Spaghetti and meat sauce
Friday - sausage biscuit sandwiches
chicken and dumplings
Saturday - TBA
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*the Sloppy Jotatoes are a personal creation -
Brown 1 # ground beef with chopped green peppers and onions
Drain, add 1 can tomato soup, 2 T brown sugar and 2 T Worcestershire sauce.
Cook till thick and bubbly.
Meanwhile, bake potatoes in the microwave.
Split in half and top with sloppy joe mixture.
YUM-O

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

I am inspired!

Reading Happy to be at Home I have been so inspired to really push to do even more to take feeding my family seriously. In today's H2BH entry, there was a recipe to make home made yogurt. I have seen recipes like this before, but never felt like I wanted to make it. Today is different. I halved the recipe - I happened to have a pint of organic plain yogurt in my fridge and a lot of milk. I am calculating - all I need to do is save a pint from each batch, make it in the evening, and have 2 quarts the next day. This is way more cost effective than buying yogurt, and it is a great encouragement to eat more of it. I can use it in smoothies (we have those for b'fast 2 days a week), baking, eating with fruit, and so on. It can also be strained and used in place of sour cream on baked potatoes and tacos.

The other thing I made from that entry was the packet oatmeal. I threw it together in about 2-3 minutes, did a test run in the microwave for 1.5 minutes (just add water) and voila! Delicious, nutritious, cheap instant oatmeal. Olivia loved it - this will make an easy quick snack any time of day.

The funny thing is that the powdered milk I have (that I thought was plain old powdered milk) is actually a Latin version of "formula" for kids - it was sold with the evaporated and powdered milk, so I was surprised to see what it really was. The great thing is that it is fortified with even more vitamins and minerals so the kids are getting a nutritious kick in their breakfast.

I am feeling so inspired! I think I'll whip out the sewing machine and tackle a few over-due sewing projects. I have a couple of minor repairs - an article of clothing for a friend, a couple of my green bags are getting worn out, and I have this gorgeous Mexican looking table cloth that we set on fire last year (don't ask). Enough of it burned to not be usable as a tablecloth, but there is still enough left to make a couple of bags. I am not too skilled with the sewing machine, so that will be fun. They will be used for groceries, so I guess it doesn't matter much if they are perfect or not.

Good night!

Monday, September 29, 2008

Monday stuff

Greetings! I realize that I haven't been regularly posting. My schedule is a little hectic and I get caught up in mundane things and forget the really important ones, like blogging, hehe!

I have been exercising and really enjoying it. I am also trying to take food preparation a step further and put more effort into healthily feeding my family. I got hooked on making my own pita bread. I use the recipe from Joy of Cooking (an excellent resource!). The family has been eating it like regular bread, which is great. I am also going to switch to making our bread for sandwiches and toast. I have done this before, but I am going to hit it again. I have a renewed desire and skill to do it. I am hoping that the family enjoys it enough to not really miss store bought. There is something great about knowing every thing you put into your body. I just cringe when I read ingredient lists and can't pronounce most of the words. And I can pronounce a lot. So...I'll let you know how that goes in the next couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, on the feathered friend front (OK, say that 5 times fast), our beloved Eddie is turning into a mean little guy. All the chickens we got earlier this year are bigger than him, but he has the biggest attitude. He may take a trip to the feed store. I might look around to see if anyone wants him. I am so sorry about this because he has been a fun pet, but is way too aggressive. We have our three kids plus several others who come on a regular basis. I can't have any animals that aren't kid-friendly. Eddie chased me this morning so bad that I had to whack him with a stick - otherwise, I would have gotten it. UGH.

Well, I had better get on to the menu plan for the week....then off to get some work done before I have to leave again.

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Sunday - chicken and rice, Asian flavors
Monday - warm pita bread with eggs
tuna salad and egg salad sandwiches
Tuesday - smoothies
meat and beans, rice and tortillas
Wednesday - cereal
Spaghetti and meat sauce
Thursday - smoothie
grilled beef short ribs, mashed potatoes, peas
Friday - toast with butter and jam
toasty sandwiches and chips
Saturday - cereal
TBD

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In case you don't hear from me again, have a great week!!!!!!!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Boring

OK, Y'all. I have to apologize for a lack of interesting content on this blog lately. It seems like I am slipping into another "sponge" phase, where I am soaking in lots and lots of information. I have to let it sink in, digest it, sit on it for a while, and then attempt to organize this information and see where it fits into my thoughts, feelings, and beliefs.

Currently I am reading The Irresistible Revolution, Organic Community, The Pursuit of God, the Bible, and I am doing a bible study based on the book of Daniel. As usual, I have all the different books situated at different spots around my home. I have a stack of books staring me in the face every time I sit down at the computer, which I am sad to report is a little too often.

I am hooked on Facebook and enjoy reuniting with long lost friends. This weekend, I reconnected with 3 of my really good friends. These were not in my grade, just people that I spent time with outside of school and had a lot of good times with, including University of Maine at Fort Kent theater production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Great times!

In addition with all this information processing and some time wasting, I have been doing some exercise videos - Turbo Jam - the direct result of watching an early morning infomercial while feeling fat and ugly. Hehe! I ordered it, not even terribly fired up about it, but did it with a little vow to myself to try it, and if I didn't like it, send it back. Well, surprise, I love it! I actually look forward to this nutty work out every morning. I can't report any significant weight loss yet, but I do feel my body transforming, and that is what it's all about. There are several different work outs and some have some funny names, and that makes me smile. (Booty Blast Plus Abs....Fat Blaster...Totally Tubular Workout, to name a few! Hehe!) I must say, I am very pleased with the program and I feel better.

My days are getting busier and busier. Mondays are grocery shopping and laundry day (I do that every day, but Mondays I catch up from the weekend). I finally got to a spot where I can help out at the girls' school and have started on Mondays and any other days I can fit some time in. I help the art teacher prepare and display the students' creations. Monday evenings, Olivia has art a 5:30, Danny has soccer practice at 6, and soon co-ed softball will be on at 7. This is all Mondays! Tuesdays and Thursdays I try to keep clear so the family can be together peacefully and not have commitments. During the days I just go with the flow, leaving room for social stuff, volunteering, helping, whatever comes along. Wednesdays all 3 kiddos go to AWANAs at a friends' church and if my knitting class ever gets enough students, I will be teaching on Wednesdays. Fridays are Sophia's soccer practice and Girl Scouts, and in the morning is my bible study. Saturdays are soccer and whatever we have energy left to do, be it veg on the couch or visit Grandpa, or whatever. Sunday is church and Grandpa. I get pooped just writing this schedule out!

We had a weather teaser last week - it was nice and cool but it's been getting warmer again. I am looking forward to lows in the 30s and highs in the 60s. Perfect. This 90s business is for the birds.

My pastor has been really working at encouraging us to live our lives, our Christian lives, every moment of every day. To worship no matter where we are, to love no matter who it is, to help others, to not judge, to bless God and others. I am taking his encouragement very seriously. I have been doing much reading and research on living my life for Jesus....I have been trying to practice it everywhere I go. I recognize that I am human and I will fall, but I will reach for God's loving hand and keep getting right back up. (I realize this looks silly, saying that I am reading about how to live my life for Jesus - I am simply reading other people's words and experiences and applying this information to my circumstances, my life, my environment. I am very thankful to have Pastor Tim as a shepherd and I pray that his passion and zeal are absolutely contagious, and this love he has for Jesus spreads like wildfire.

Have a wonderful week, and please humor me and try out some of my Happy Twit suggestions...you might even be surprised and get a good laugh and maybe even make some one's day!

With Love.....

Menu plan for the week

Here's our weekly menu plan!
Sunday - Grilled steak and corn, ranch potatoes
Monday - Scrambled eggs, toast
Vegetable Barley soup and biscuits*
Tuesday - smoothie
Penne with tomato cream sauce and Italian sausage
Wednesday - French toast
Taco salad with chicken fajita meat
Thursday - smoothie
***either - meat and beans and tortillas *** or kidnap my MIL for a birthday dinner***
Friday - cereal
Toasty sandwiches
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*3 Ingredient Biscuits
2 c self-rising flour
1 stick butter (I grate it in on a cheese grater, rather than cut in)
3/4 c buttermilk
Cut in butter, then add buttermilk.
450 degrees
15 minutes for large biscuits
10 for smaller ones
This is a "drop" biscuit recipe, but I just lopped off a piece of dough, formed it into a patty, and went from there. The recipe made 7 large biscuits - that took 15 minutes. The recipe says it makes 12 biscuits, and the time called for was 10 minutes.
I also brushed a little butter on top half way through.
Be careful - these are sooooo good!!!